Well it has been a slow few weeks as real life has caught up
with me. Lots of busy things happening. Drafts were amazing. Had a great time,
and have some great teams. I hope the same has befallen you as well. So now we
have a full week in the bank. It’s time to look at the best plays and worst
plays we find this week. So let’s take a look at this week’s start/sit.
Start
John Brown, WR, Arizona is facing his second good match up
in a row. After performing fairly well in Week One, with four catches on seven
targets for 46 yards and a touchdown, Brown is once again a guy I am sliding
into my flex positions this week. Facing
the Chicago Bears in Week Two, Brown finds a favorable situation ahead. The Bears
gave up three touchdowns through the air last week. In the 2014 season the
Bears were 30th in passing yards allowed for the season. I expect
the issues with the Bears passing defense to continue this week. Get Brown in
your lineup.
Carson Palmer, QB, Arizona is leading the attack again this
week for the Cardinals. Palmer had a superb opening game to the season,
throwing for 307 yards and 3 scores. Palmer is a good enough quarterback to
take advantage of a defense that is weak in the passing game. Expect him to do
more of the same this week. If you are lucky and planned the start of your
season, you can stack Palmer and Brown this week and double your pleasure.
Palmer is a great start for you this week.
Bishop Sankey, RB, Tennessee is a surprise addition to this
list. I never thought I'd say that after the 2014 season, and the tumultuous offseason at the
running back position in Tennessee. Sankey had a fantastic performance in the
new and seemingly improved offense of the Titans. Rookie quarterback Marcus
Mariota was fantastic in his NFL debut last week, and Sankey was also
impressive. This week Sankey and the Titans will face off against the hapless
Cleveland Browns. Last season the Browns gave up the most yards per game on the
ground. The Browns picked up right where they left off allowing 154 yards in
their first game of the season. If you see Sankey hanging out on your waiver
wire and are in need of a running back this week, snatch him up and get him in
your lineup.
Steve Smith Sr, WR, Baltimore squares off against the not
improved defense of the Oakland raiders. The Ravens faced the Broncos in a
clash of good defensive units last week. This week, the Ravens offense will
have a much better time of it. The Raiders gave up 270 yards and 2 passing
touchdowns last week to the Cincinnati Bengals. This bodes well for the likes
of Smith Sr. Look for him to atone for dropping a touchdown last week. Get Smith
Sr. in your lineups.
Eric Decker, WR, New York Jets is a great second receiver
for an NFL team. The good news about that is he will likely not get the top
corner coverage a lot this year now that the Jets have a number one guy. This
week the Jets face the sub-par defense of the Indianapolis Colts. The colts
didn’t give up a huge amount of passing yards in the first week of the season,
but they did give up a long score to Percy Harvin. Expect that the top corner,
Vontae Davis, will be on Brandon Marshall. This leads me to believe that Decker
is primed to have himself a solid game. Start him if you got him.
Sit
LeGarrette Blount, RB, New England Patriots was suspended
for the first week of the season so we haven’t seen him on the field yet in
regular season action. His first game back is against the stout defense of the
Buffalo Bills. The narrative being bounced around twitter and the podcast circuit
is that the Patriots will attack the Bills defense with short passing. This seems
to make sense with some of the personnel the Pats feature. If this is in fact
what Bill Belichick does with his game plan, this doesn’t play well for Blount.
Blount is not the best pass catching back the pats have. Along with the
possible bad game plan for Blount, Buffalo is very good against the run. The
Bills allowed just over 100 yards on the ground per game last season, and in their
first game of this season they held the Colts to 64 rushing yards. I’m sitting
Blount this week.
Andre Johnson, WR, Indianapolis Colts looked like an old,
washed up man last week against the Bills. This week assuming he gets the top
corner his opponent has if TY Hilton is out, we will welcome Johnson to Revis
Island. I can’t imagine any situation where Revis has two functioning legs and
can’t shut down Johnson. The best hope for him is if Donte Moncrief torches the
Jets on a few plays and they shift the coverage to Moncrief instead. But this
assumes that Johnson is ready for the challenge and steps up to it. I am not
looking to take that chance myself and would sit Andre Johnson this week.
Latavius Murray, RB, Oakland Raiders had a decent game for
one where his team was never even close to competitive. The good news is he got
seven catches in the game last week. This week Murray and the Raiders face the
stiff Baltimore Ravens defense. Baltimore only gave up 69 yards rushing last
week against the Broncos. This might seem like it is due to the mess that has
been the Broncos offensive line, but they were stout last year as well. In the
2014 campaign the Ravens only allowed 88 yards rushing per game and eight touchdowns
on the season. This makes me want to put Murray on my bench this week.
TJ Yeldon, RB, Jacksonville Jaguars had 51 rushing yards in
his first NFL start. The positives about this are that he got four yards per
carry, and that he also caught three passes. This was a game against Carolina,
a usually strong defense, but they were missing Star Lotulelei in the middle of
that defensive line. This week doesn’t get any easier than last week, squaring
off against the Miami Dolphins and their scary defense. The Dolphins did give
up a lot of yards in game one of the season, but that was against an actually
decent run blocking line of Washington. The Jags line is not that good. I don’t
see good things for Yeldon this week and am sitting him in the leagues I own
him in.
Frank Gore, RB, Indianapolis Colts squares off against the
New York Jets this week. Another team with a strong defensive line, the Jets
only allowed 104 yards last week to the Browns, but 58 of those yards were
given up to the quarterbacks of the browns. That means that the running backs only
gained 46 yards. Gore looked old, and actually left the game with cramps. Gore
had 8 carries for 31 yards and 2 catches last week. I am not feeling too good
about his chances this week and would bench him for a better option.
It feels good to be back. The first week of the season was
amazing. Happy to bring you some advice and insights into who to start and sit
in your leagues. Check back for more articles in the near future and read some
of my other work at socalledfantasyexperts.com and fakepigskin.com. Thanks for
reading and good luck in week two!
